ND Burma
ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.
Recent Posts
- Myanmar junta bombs Rohingya Muslim village killing 41, rescuers say
- Myanmar’s junta cuts filmmaker’s life sentence to 15 years as part of wider amnesty
- Close The Sky
- International condemnation of the escalating humanitarian crisis and rights violations in Myanmar
- Women in Karenni State face increasing levels of violence
Human Rights Situation weekly update (February 22 to 29, 2024)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Feb 22 to 29, 2024
Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Shan State, and Rakhine State from February 22nd to 29th. Military Junta announced the Martial Law at Momeik and Mabein Township on February 28th. The military Junta arrested the civilians who used the land and water transportation to Rakhine. Military Junta Troop recruited new soldiers and made the civilians lists in Ayeyarwady Region, Bago Region, Rakhine State, and Mon State and forced 112 Rohingya people from Kyauktalone Refugee Camp in Kyaukphyu Township, Rakhine State, to attend the Military Service.
Over 20 civilians died and over 60 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. 4 underaged children died when the Military Junta committed abuses. An LGBT civilian also died by the arrest and torture of the Military Junta at the police station of Monywa, Sagaing Region on February 24th.
Infogram
NUG Calls for Global Action to Halt Myanmar Junta’s Escalating War Crimes
/in NewsMyanmar’s civilian National Unity Government (NUG) declared on Wednesday that effective international actions are urgently needed to prevent the military regime from relentlessly attacking hospitals and civilians.
The NUG said Myanmar’s military has conducted over 1,200 attacks on health facilities, killing 104 medics, injuring 136 others, and destroying a total of 308 hospitals and clinics since the military coup in 2021.
In the latest attack, patients and staff were wounded when junta aircraft bombed the Min Phoo village hospital in Minbya Township, Rakhine State at 1.45 am on Tuesday.
The ethnic Arakan Army (AA) said captured junta soldiers and their family members were among the patients being treated in the hospital at the time of the airstrike.
“The [hospital] is not a military target. It was treating civilians as well as junta soldiers who surrendered to the AA along with their family members,” said a captured junta commander in a video released by the AA on Thursday.
“The attack on the hospital also damages the dignity of our military,” added Lieutenant Colonel Nay Lin Tun, commander of Infantry Battalion 299.
The commander was captured after being wounded in a clash with AA troops in Minbya Township on Jan. 28. He had just finished his third week of recovery from surgery at the hospital in Min Phoo when the airstrike was conducted.
On Feb. 20, regime aircraft used powerful bombs to attack a public hospital and residential areas of Ramree town in Rakhine State, destroying the entire hospital building as well as damaging Myoma market, a school, and a convent, the NUG said.
Junta aircraft also attacked a hospital in Kawlin town, Sagaing Region on Feb. 9, destroying almost the entire building. There were no casualties as patients and hospital staff managed to evacuate before the attack, the NUG said.
The civilian government said the junta is frequently attacking hospitals and other civilian targets in violation of the Geneva Conventions, international humanitarian law and UN Security Council resolutions.
It also vowed to take severe action against those who contribute to the military regime’s onslaught against the health sector.
“The international community must not ignore the junta’s violence against health services and civilians,” the NUG said in its statement.
The junta is suffering humiliating defeats on multiple fronts across the country as the NUG’s People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) and allied ethnic armed organizations step up their offensive.
Regime forces have retaliated by intensifying attacks on civilian targets including villages, towns, schools, hospitals and religious sites across the country.
Intentional attacks on civilian areas including villages, towns and schools, as well as buildings dedicated to education, healthcare and religion, are considered war crimes under international law.
Irrawaddy News
Myanmar junta kills 12 after firing into crowded market
/in NewsEighteen others are critically injured, rescue workers said.
Junta shelling of a crowded market in western Myanmar killed 12 people and critically injured 18 more on Thursday morning, rescue workers told Radio Free Asia.
A junta battalion on a nearby road fired indiscriminately into a marketplace in Rakhine state’s capital of Sittwe during the busiest time of day, locals said.
Sittwe has become a disputed territory since a rebel group, the Arakan Army, captured surrounding junta camps and seized six townships across Rakhine state. In early February, the Arakan Army demanded junta troops in Sittwe surrender before their arrival in the capital.
The junta army’s grasp on the area has been tenuous after losing territories, but troops have attempted control by placing restrictions on the capital and making large-scale arrests. On Feb. 19, regime forces detained 500 people who landed in Sittwe off a flight arriving from Yangon.
A rescue volunteer who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons told RFA the dead have been sent to Sittwe Hospital’s mortuary, and the injured are being treated there
“Those 18 were critically injured and their injuries are life-threatening,” he said. “Some people died on the spot and others after arriving at the hospital. All of them are vendors and shoppers.”
The names and ages of the deceased could not be confirmed. However, most of them were women, children and the elderly, the volunteer added.
The shell was fired by a battalion near Shu Khin Thar road, residents said.
RFA contacted Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein for further details about the attack, but he did not reply.
The Arakan Army ended a humanitarian-based year-long ceasefire on Nov. 13 with the junta when they began to attack border outposts and convoys across Minbya and Rathedaung townships.
The Arakan Army released a statement on Tuesday saying that 111 civilians have been killed and 357 have been injured by small and heavy artillery fired by the junta from the ceasefire to Feb. 18, 2024.
RFA News
Myanmar Junta Captives Confess to Rakhine Executions
/in NewsMyanmar junta soldiers and police in Mrauk-U Township have confessed to involvement in the execution of seven Rakhine civilians, including a former journalist and rapper, in an Arakan Army (AA) video.
The detainees said the seven civilians were held at Mrauk-U police station before they were taken to Light Infantry Battalion 378 headquarters in late December.
The AA seized the police station on December 24 but the senior ranks left with the detainees for the infantry camp.
Major Thein Htike Soe, a Battalion 378 company commander, said he ordered Lance Corporal Than Aung and Captain Arkar Myint to execute the civilians, including rapper and social influencer Phoe La Pyae and Phoe Thiha, also known as Myat Thu Tun, a formerjournalist.
Maj Thein Htike Soe says on the video that he and District Police Chief Khin Maung Soe told the divisional commander Min Min Tun that the seven detainees were killed by shrapnel in a bomb blast. He did not say why he ordered the killings.
Deputy Police Chief Major Khin Maung Soe and army Captain Arkar Myint said the major ordered the executions on January 23.
Capt Arkar Myint says in the video: “The lance corporal asked to carry out the executions in the bomb shelter under the clinic, inside the base. I agreed and told him to bury the bodies.”
He expressed sadness for the executions and apologized to the families and the wider community for his involvement, adding that he would accept any punishment.
The AA on February 11 reported that dead bodies were found in a bomb shelter under the clinic inside Battalion 378 in Mrauk-U Township with gunshot wounds and signs of torture.
On February 22 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the international community to act to stop junta massacres.
“This shocking murder bears the hallmark of the Myanmar military junta, which for three years now has imposed a climate of terror on all media professionals and is once again demonstrating its ruthless violence,” said Cédric Alviani of RSF.
He has called on the regime to cease its campaign of terror against the media and release the 62 journalists and press freedom defenders detained in the country.
Fighting restarted in Rakhine State when the AA attacked junta forces on November 13 with repeated civilian casualties caused by junta airstrikes, shelling and naval attacks.
Irrawaddy News
Human Rights Situation weekly update (February 15 to 21, 2024)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Feb 15 to 21, 2024
Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Bago Region, Rakhine State, Kachin State, Shan State, Kayah State, Kayin State, and Mon State from February 15th to 21st. Over 100 civilians died by the arrest and killing of Military Troops and 4 women including an aged girl were raped and killed. Military Junta arrested and blackmailed the civilians by using the Conscription Law in many places around the country.
About 20 civilians died and over 20 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. 6 underaged children died when the Military Junta committed abuses. A civilian also died by the landmine of the Military Junta.
Infogram
Cover Jobs Offer Some Protection for Myanmar’s Lone Reporters
/in NewsWASHINGTON —
One works as a teacher. Others pretend to be students and shopkeepers. In Myanmar, their day jobs help mask their real profession as journalists.
With the space for independent journalism all but eliminated since the February 2021 military coup, some journalists still working inside Myanmar are using cover jobs as a form of protection.
The trend underscores both the resiliency of Myanmar media and the threats posed by the country’s military, analysts say.
Since the military overthrew the civilian-led government over three years ago, the junta has cracked down hard on independent media, with over a dozen outlets banned and even more journalists jailed.
The risky environment prompted entire outlets to flee into exile and forced some journalists to stop working entirely. But some reporters decided to stay in Myanmar, where they report underground at great risk to their safety.
“We can be arrested by the military at any time,” one journalist secretly working inside Myanmar told VOA. They requested anonymity for safety reasons.
“Since the coup, I have already told people around me that I will no longer work as a journalist,” said the reporter. Instead, they use the cover of being a student studying foreign languages.
Another journalist in Myanmar said they convinced people in their town “that I abandoned journalist work.” A job as a teacher helps hide that they still work as a reporter.
From Exile, Myanmar’s Media Navigate Risks to Get News
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Like all the journalists inside Myanmar who spoke with VOA for this article, they requested their identity be hidden for safety reasons.
With a history punctuated by periods of military rule, Myanmar’s media already had a playbook for creative ways to continue reporting and stay safe.
The trend of cover jobs is the latest sign “that Myanmar journalists do not want to give up easily,” a journalist who fled Myanmar after the coup and is now based in Bangkok told VOA.
Despite being outside Myanmar, they requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.
In 2023, Myanmar ranked second in the world in terms of the number of journalists jailed over their work, with at least 43 behind bars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.
Journalists in Myanmar say they believe the arrests are intended to silence media.
“The junta wants the country to be in darkness, and they don’t want the world to know the real situation in the country,” the teacher-journalist said. “This is the reason why the junta tries to arrest journalists.”
The targeting of journalists parallels the military’s repression of the entire population. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says the military and its affiliated groups are responsible for over 4,500 deaths, and that more than 20,000 people are currently detained for resisting the coup.
Myanmar’s military did not reply to VOA’s request for comment.
Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, says media inside the country take big risks.
“Journalists literally take their lives in their hands to do their work in Myanmar,” Andrews told VOA shortly before the third anniversary of the coup.
“The level of courage and commitment demonstrated by journalists working in Myanmar is just stunning and inspiring,” he said.
As recently as January, a journalist named Myat Thu Tan was shot and killed while in military custody in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
A third journalist still inside the country said reporters “are the most wanted persons.”
That journalist, who also asked for anonymity, is pretending to be a student studying foreign languages.
Among the numerous challenges of working undercover is a sense of isolation. The fear of being discovered by the military means they sometimes don’t even talk to other reporters in the country.
“Local journalists live in silence, so it is difficult to know each other,” said one of the journalists, with a cover as a student.
Keeping a secret life for years at a time is also exhausting, experts say.
“They have to hide themselves from friends and family. They have to basically create an entire second life while trying to very subtly do their part in the revolution against the military,” Oliver Spencer, a Chiang Mai-based expert on press freedom in Myanmar, told VOA.
The journalists, however, say being able to keep reporting inside Myanmar makes it worth it. The journalist who works as a teacher said they get a better sense of public opinion.
“If there are no journalists in the country, the junta will surely do what they want,” they said.
Voa News